Member of The Velvet Underground. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of the group) in 1996.
Quit The Velvet Underground while they were on tour in Texas. He enrolled as a student at the University of Texas Austin focusing on medieval studies. In Austin he became a Teaching Assistant and eventually completed a PhD.
Dropped out of college in his senior year, eventually joining The Velvet Underground. Obtained his Bachelor's degree at City College of
New York during 1970, when the Velvets had a residency at Max's Kansas
City; he rode a bicycle between school and the club.
After graduating from UT-Austin, he moved away and was a tugboat pilot in the ship channel of Houston, Texas, throughout the 1980s. Some of his friends and colleagues speculate that the toxicity of the ship channel led to his cancer.